When
forming impressions about others people are influenced by the
appearance and the nonverbal behavior of a person. Hence, speakers are
not only judged by their ability to recite a brilliantly written
speech, but also by nonverbal cues such as their physiognomic features,
their facial expressions and gestures. These cues are either difficult
to change or largely performed without conscious control. Consequently,
creating a favorable impression is a difficult task and might be
coupled to individual differences in presenting oneself on a behavioral
level.

In previous studies in which we turned the body
movements of politicians into animated stick figures found such
individual differences. Observers who watched the stick figure movies
were able to relate variations in body motion to different personality
traits. The results obtained are preliminary to some extent and a
broader empirical basis is needed to underpin the signal value of the
patterns detected.
For this reason the current project will be aimed to examine how the
behavioral stream's motion cues is related to other types of nonverbal
features and how different communication channels affect judgments of a
speaker's personality, competence and trustworthiness.

Social judgments based on the appearance and the nonverbal behavior of
a person can have far reaching consequences. Knowing more about these
processes will help to explain how people make their choices.
Charismatic personalities might be influential and act with the best of
intentions, but this influence can also be used for personal goals
only. Some politicians are able to evoke strong emotional reactions in
their audience that cannot be turned off by verbal arguments. However,
with a better understanding of the underlying nonverbal communication
processes this would hit us not so unprepared

Koppensteiner,
M., Grammer, K. (2010). Motion patterns in political speech and their
influence on personality ratings. Journal of Research in Personality,
44, 374-379.